2010 the year of independence

While most WA school principals are winding up the school year and thinking of the weeks of holidays that lie beyond Friday, 34 are planning for massive changes in 2010.

Those 34 schools were chosen from 100 applicants to become independent.

That means principals will have greater flexibility to hire staff, manage budgets, choose subjects and even expel students from their schools.

The successful applicants were announced in October and have had to undergo training before term one starts.

The Government has been criticised for rushing the implementation of the trial, giving schools just one month to nominate to become independent and the chosen ones a few months to prepare.

But the Education Department's director general Sharyn O'Neill is optimistic about 2010.

"These are highly competent school leaders, highly competent teachers and school staff so they're well placed, they're ready and they want to get on with it and we're going to back them 100 per cent," Ms O'Neill said.

She says the training has been well-received and only a small number of teachers have left those schools to work at campuses that are not under the new independent umbrella.

Mitch Mackay is the principal of John Curtin College of the Arts and says the training has been helpful.

"There's a range of training from talking about the one-line budgets that'll come into schools and working on the shift for the college boards or councils that you'll have in place, so just the small changes in terms of responsibilities and just including your boards in some greater decision making," Mr Mackay said.

"We're very comfortable, in fact I feel we've had more than enough training in all the areas that we need. I think they've chosen schools who are very ready for that, they're very competent with their financial management and leadership. We are very ready to move into term one of next year."

Mr Mackay says his school has already made some large changes over the years.

It is one of a few public schools to have a marketing and communications person.

And he recognises huge benefits the school will gain from being independent.

"The teachers are pleased, even the people who were sceptical at first," he said.

"Simple things like people's long service leave has been able to be approved here at the school site, allowing them to book their holiday earlier, rather than having to go through quite a lengthy process, it's been very positive for staff.

"We've been able to speed the employment process up and are able to give people surety in their positions quicker than in the past, I think that's been the best advantage of the new systems."

Ms O'Neill say the changes will work best in schools where the principals are entrepreneurial.

"I think the most exciting part here is the liberating effect it's had on the 34 schools in the first instance. They feel for the first time in a long time that the government and the Education Department has recognised their expertise in leading their own school."

Ms O'Neill says if the "demonstration phase" goes well, more schools will be given independence.

"The government has decided that independent public schools are the way of the future. So this is learning how we can grow it across the system and we should anticipate further intakes from here."

"I think we're going to get a lot of things right and from time to time there's going to be some things that could have been better."

She says all schools could benefit from greater flexibility and independence from the Department.

"We're not interested in a one-size fits all. But the heart of this whole initiative is giving schools the flexibility they need school-by-school to do the very best job for the students t that school."

Mr Mackay mirrored that sentiment.

"One of the nicest things is the cultural shift, looking for individual solutions for school sites rather than a one-size-fits-all approach and having a large bureaucracy and making that difficult so we've found it's just so refreshing when we have local solutions that we need to investigate that we're finding people who are really enthusiastic and are trying to find really good solutions for our college," he said.